The Goblin Market–Jennifer Hudock guest post

Today’s Inspirational Award goes to Jennifer Hudock! Welcome to her and her story of memory, magic, and mystery . . .

________________________

I grew up reading and living faerie tales. When I wasn’t firmly planted in the pages of a book, I was out rolling down the mountain behind the house or ducking in and out of tree forts and tunnels playing tag with pixies and the Green Man.

In college, I study Christina Rossetti’s poem, “The Goblin Market” in depth and fell in love with the idea. Two young women alone in the world with nothing but each other… When the course I was taking finished, I couldn’t stop thinking about the “Goblin Market.” Where did it come from? Why was it there? Did it have a purpose? Who created it?

I wanted to explore the market itself more deeply, as well as the relationship between the two sisters the market affected in the original poem. The more I brainstormed, the more excited I became, creating an entire world riddled with a darkness no twisted it haunted my own dreams.

The result in the end was The Goblin Market…

Beyond the Goblin Market lies the remains of a lost and broken kingdom divided by war. The war has been over for centuries, but the kingdoms still stand apart, overrun by a creeping goblin darkness known as the Darknjan Wald. It has been written that only one holds the power to destroy that darkness and reunite the kingdoms, but she has no memory of her former life.

Meredith Drexler must save her sister, Christina, from the wicked goblin king, Kothar, who has kidnapped the girl in order to convince Meredith to uphold an ancient commitment Meredith doesn’t remember making. Sent Upland disguised as a human child, she has no recollection of her former faerie life, or her uncle’s promised marriage betrothal to Kothar.

When she ventures back Underground in search of Christina, every step Meredith takes brings memories of her forgotten past back to the surface. As the pressures of her former life entangle with her quest to save her kidnapped sister, Meredith’s predetermined fate is revealed. Will she embrace it, or walk away forever from a life she barely remembers as her own?